China Suspects More Sars

Two More Possible Cases Have Officials Fearing Another Outbreak.

January 12, 2004|By Keith Bradsher, the New York Times

HONG KONG -- Health officials here said they had been notified of a third suspected case of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China's adjacent Guangdong province and were making inquiries today about a possible fourth case. They expressed growing worry during the weekend about the possibility of another outbreak here.

The third case is a 35-year-old man with no recent history of travel to Hong Kong and no apparent contact with wild animals -- the suspected source of some cases -- said Dr. Thomas Tsang, a community medicine consultant for the Hong Kong Department of Health. Tsang said that while Guangdong officials had notified Hong Kong, as required under recent cooperation agreements, few details had been provided, such as whether the man had traveled anywhere other than Hong Kong.

A Guangdong provincial official, commenting on that case, said it was only suspected, not confirmed.

Chinese-language news media in Hong Kong reported this morning that while the first three suspected or confirmed cases had been in Guangzhou, 80 miles north, a fourth case had just been discovered in Shenzhen on Hong Kong's border.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Department of Health said the agency was asking mainland authorities for information about the possibility of a Shenzhen case. The Guangdong official said she had no information about that.

Roy Wadia, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, said Sunday evening that China's Ministry of Health in Beijing said that the tests on the 35-year-old man were not yet conclusive.

Provincial officials have been coordinating their epidemiological and scientific work with Hong Kong officials closely, with the result that the Hong Kong government has repeatedly released information before it becomes public on the mainland.

Guangdong province has already confirmed SARS in one case, a 32-year-old television producer who was released from a hospital last Thursday, and has identified another suspected case, a 20-year-old waitress at a restaurant that served wild animal meat.

After doctors identified SARS-like corona viruses in civet cats they tested, officials ordered the slaughter of thousands of civets.